The invention relates to keys in a keyboard of a data processing device, especially in wrist watch format, wherein the miniaturized keys are disposed closely side by side.
Electronic minicomputers, which frequently are combined with electronic watches in wrist watch size, contain miniaturized keys of, for example, 1 mm diameter, which are operated by means of an operating pin; for this purpose, the upper surfaces of the keys are formed to have a concave shape. As against the considerable advantage that, for example, a wrist watch computer is always available within easy reach, its operation by means of a pin is not generally considered to be very much of a disadvantage, since the computer is used mostly in situations where, if not the original pin itself, some replacement tool will be always available. In order to be able to use such a wrist watch calculator in those rather rare situations where neither the separate operating pin nor a replacement pin is handy, the proposal had already been made to provide on the housing a releasable operating device, for example, in the form of a closing element for the housing lid (German OS No. 25 02 583). In such an embodiment, the minicomputer may thus generally be operated in the easiest manner by means of a pin-shaped replacement device, and only in exceptional instances will the cumbersome removal of the operating device disposed on the housing be necessary. If, for example, the electronic wrist watch is combined with some other data processing device, such as for example, with a telephone register, then conditions are just the reverse, i.e., the telephone register generally is used in situations in which no pin-shaped replacement instrument is available, so that the cumbersome removal of the operating instrument from the housing becomes the rule. In such cases an operation of the keyboard with an operating pin is felt to be too cumbersome and annoying. The necessity of having to use a pin-shaped instrument for a safe operation of the keys of a miniaturized keyboard is, therefore, a disadvantage of such known keyboards, which, depending on the circumstances, is more or less serious, and in any case it always exists.
It is the task of the present invention to create a key for the keyboards, particularly keyboards of data processing miniature devices, wherein its safe operation is not tied to the use of a pin-shaped operating instrument.